Adventures in Shore Leave
by Tez
Summary: Lucas really needs to stop picking up women in bars. Third season, Lucas/OC.
1. Chapter 1

Lucas sat at the bar, shoulders slumped in defeat as he looked around the room. The dance club was dark, with blue recessed lights beneath the bar as the only consistent lighting in the main area. It wasn't quite as loud by the bar as it was on the dance floor, which was the main reason he was sitting over here instead of at one of the tables that skirted the section of the club where most of the patrons, including Tony and Tim, were dancing. The pounding music had started to give him a headache and he'd retreated to the bar, leaving his shipmates to dance with the pair of women who'd picked them up practically the moment they'd walked in. He'd tried to get Tony's attention before moving to the other side of the club, but the enlisted man had been completely occupied with the buxom blonde on his arm, and eventually he'd just given up and come over here.

He'd tried to order a beer, but just like the bartenders at the first two clubs they'd been to that night, the guy behind the bar had laughed at his ID and told him to get a better fake next time. He was seriously contemplating making himself a fake ID when he got back to the boat, one with a birthdate that someone looking at him might actually _believe_, and only the thought of Hudson's wrath if the captain found out he was using UEO equipment to forge identification gave him pause. His life had been so much simpler when he'd really been eighteen.

Lucas took a sip of the soda that had been all the bartender was willing to serve him, and slouched down a little further on his barstool. Tim and Tony were still dancing with the same women, and Lucas wished they'd been a group of three girls instead of two. If there'd been a third, maybe he wouldn't be sitting there alone. He scanned the room, looking for any cute single women who might want company, but the club was mostly populated by couples or large groups of people. There was one woman sitting alone on the other side of the bar, but she was intimidatingly gorgeous, and he was also pretty sure that the bartender had a thing for her. He'd ignored Lucas for a good fifteen minutes before he'd come over to serve him the first time, but he'd gone straight over to the woman when she'd come up to the bar and he showed no signs of being ready to move on to another customer.

Lucas looked down at his soda, which was almost gone, and rolled his eyes. The likelihood of getting another one was slim to none as long as the bartender was busy chatting up the woman across the bar, and he resigned himself to finishing this one as slowly as possible.

* * *

><p>"Here you go, Lena."<p>

She accepted the drink from her favorite bartender, who also happened to be the owner of the club, with a smile of thanks. Her hand on his wrist kept him from disappearing back down the bar.

"Hey, Gary, what's the story with the blond guy?"

He glanced over his shoulder to where the young man sat, his lips quirking upward in a reluctant smile.

"Sailor. Came in with two other sailors, but they're both on the dance floor with a couple of the barflies."

"Mallory and Erin," Lena agreed wryly. The two women were well known by the other regulars at The Quarter. Lena had helped Gary break up several fights caused by their 'dates'. "Those sailors will have trouble shaking them off when their liberty ends. I wonder if they've figured out yet that the girls aren't exactly free company."

Gary shrugged. "That's their problem. I've told the girls they can pick up all the paying customers they want in here, but I don't want anything to do with their business transactions. The Quarter makes me plenty of money. I got no interest in bein' their pimp."

Lena snorted in amusement. She and Gary shared a _laissez-faire_ attitude toward most of life's little things, and the presence of hookers in his bar didn't cause him a moment's pause so long as they weren't making any trouble for him. Although she wasn't likely to tell Gary this, Lena had actually encouraged Mallory and Erin to pick up their dates in the bar where she and Gary could keep an eye on them. Hookers or not, she liked them, and she didn't want anything unpleasant to happen to them.

"Anyway, the sailor at the bar tried to use a fake ID to order a drink."

"That happens all the time. You don't usually laugh out loud at them when they try."

"His ID says he's twenty-eight." He nodded at her surprised expression. "It startled me, that's all. Usually the kids who come in here looking to drink aren't so ballsy."

"You'd think he would've gone a little younger," she agreed. She would've made a joke about the sailor's lofty aspirations, but there was something tugging at the back of her mind that she couldn't quite remember. "Wait. Wait a minute…damn, Gary. I know him."

Gary gave her a tolerant smile. "Little young for you, ain't he, _p'tite_?"

Lena thumped his arm with the flat of her hand, shaking her head at herself. She was embarrassed to admit that she hadn't recognized the guy at first. Granted, she hadn't been _looking _for him, but it was still embarrassing to realize that she'd been eyeing him for a good five minutes before she'd realized who he was. After the disappearance of _seaQuest_, Lucas Wolenczak had become a legend in the way that sometimes happened when a gorgeous young man with lots of potential met a tragic and untimely end. She'd been fourteen at the time, just the right age to develop an enormous crush on the good-looking computer analyst, and she wondered now if he had any idea that his 'death' had turned him into her generation's James Dean.

She'd heard about his return, too, although she'd been busy with other things at the time, and all she really remembered from the briefing she'd received was that the _seaQuest _crew had been gone for ten years but hadn't aged a day. That had been strange enough that it had stuck with her despite her distraction, and now her eyes widened as she stared across the bar at an impossibility.

"He really is twenty-eight, Gary," she informed her friend, who gave a derisive laugh.

"Ain't no way."

"Hey, would I lie to you?"

"Yes," he pointed out calmly, and she grinned.

"Maybe I would, but I'm not now," Lena told him. She picked up the shot glass on the bar, tossing its contents back in one swallow and then handing Gary the empty glass. "I'm going over there. Come join us in a minute."

He gave her a doubtful look. In the two years since she'd befriended him, though, she'd never led him astray, and eventually he shrugged. The two Acadian transplants led very different lives, but they'd gotten along since the day Lena had come into his bar in New Cape Quest and ordered a Sazerac. She was a hellraiser, but she was also a true Cajun charmer, and in the years since he'd left New Orleans he'd missed having his own kind around.

* * *

><p>"Hey, sailor."<p>

Lucas turned his head to the left and decided that maybe he'd finally gone crazy from pure boredom. Either he was hallucinating or the beautiful woman from across the bar was now perched on the barstool next to his, smiling at him.

"Let me buy you a drink?" she asked, when he remained silent. He flinched at the request. Now he was going to have to explain to her that the bartender wouldn't serve him because he looked like a teenager, because he _was _a teenager although technically he was twenty-eight, and that was a discussion he really didn't want to have tonight.

"I'm not thirsty," he replied, regretting the words as soon as they left his mouth. Surely he could've come up with some other way, any other way, to turn down the drink offer without making it sound like he didn't want her company. Now she was going to get up and leave him sitting there like an idiot while she went back to flirting with the bartender or hooked up with one of the big muscle-bound goons hanging out in the club. They were probably more her type anyway.

"You look thirsty," she rebutted, and flagged down the bartender before he recovered enough to think of a response. The man who'd taken eons to even notice Lucas showed up so quickly for her that it was almost offensive. A_nother brush-off_, he thought darkly to himself, and then shook his head. What was he doing? The most attractive girl in the entire club was talking to him, and he was still feeling sorry for himself?

"Two Radlers," she told the bartender, interrupting Lucas's train of thought, and he looked up to see what the bartender would do. He expected a protest, or for the man to refuse to serve him again, but he merely nodded and went to get their drinks, leaving Lucas alone with her.

"So." He hesitated for a moment, trying to come up with a smooth line and drawing a total blank. "What's a Radler?" he asked, for lack of anything better to say.

She smiled up at him and he felt his heart beat a little faster. She was _really _pretty. "It's a mixed drink, half beer and half lemon soda."

"That's good?" he asked, not realizing how dubious he sounded until the words left his mouth. Before he could kick himself for it, she threw her head back and laughed.

"It's better than straight beer," she declared. "It's a German thing, but Gary turned me on to them a while back. They're - well, here, try for yourself."

Just like that, the bartender was back with the two requested drinks, and he deposited them on the bar with a smile and a wink at the woman next to him before disappearing again.

"Unbelievable," he muttered, and she laughed again.

"Sorry about Gary," she added. At his confused expression, she inclined her head in the direction the bartender had gone. "He can be sharp, him, but it's just his way. I'm sure he didn't recognize you or he would've been a sight nicer."

If she was friends with the bartender, that made him feel marginally better about how much faster she'd been served than he had. Then the second part of her statement sank in, and he gave her a suspicious look.

"Recognize me?"

She took a long sip of her drink, then looked up at him again, mischief in her eyes.

"You _are_ Lucas Wolenczak, aren't you?"

* * *

><p>"Hey, check it out!"<p>

Grateful for an excuse to turn away from the incredibly clingy brunette who'd attached herself to his arm like a limpet mine, Tim looked over at Tony, who was pointing back toward the bar.

"Whoa," Tim said as he followed Tony's gaze to find Lucas sitting with a really hot woman. He also had what looked like a beer in front of him, which was nothing short of amazing considering that every other bar they'd been to that night had refused to serve him.

"His night's looking up," Tony opined with a grin, and then turned back to the voluptuous blonde he'd been dancing with. "And so's mine! Let's dance, Valerie!"

"It's Mallory," she corrected, but she was already taking his hand, and Tim rolled his eyes. He had no idea what it was about Tony that seemed to attract women, but the other man was like a magnet for beautiful girls.

"That's a good idea," said the brunette attached to his arm. Erin, he was pretty sure, but it was loud in the club and he hadn't really heard her name, and he was too embarrassed to ask her to repeat it. "Let's dance, baby."

He doubted she had any idea what his name was. As he declined her offer, it occurred to him that he was being an idiot - after all, even Lucas had found a woman to hook up with - but she just wasn't his type. His type of woman wouldn't hang out in a bar like this, he reflected, which made this night kind of a stupid idea. He'd only gone because Tony had invited him and Lucas had begged him not to make him go alone with the ebullient seaman. Tim had kind of assumed that he and Lucas would be hanging out together all night while Tony picked up women, but when Erin had come up and started flirting with him, he'd been so flattered she'd picked him that it took him a while to realize she wasn't what he was looking for.

Sitting at a table on the far side of the dance floor, he watched as Lucas talked with the blonde next to him, and hoped for his friend's sake that he was having a better time than Tim.

* * *

><p>"Let me get this straight. I'm famous?"<p>

The woman - Lena, he reminded himself, which was a cute name that was made even cuter by her pronunciation of it, her accent making the syllables melodic - wrinkled her nose. "You were," she corrected him. "Right after the _seaQuest _disappeared. I think it's died down some over the years as the girls from my generation got older."

"Why?" he asked, baffled, and she laughed.

"You were a heartthrob, _cher_." She pronounced the word 'sha', and it took him a moment to realize what she'd said. He spoke fluent French, but he was quickly realizing that the language he'd spoken in Paris as a child bore little resemblance to the Cajun French that kept slipping into her sentences. "A tragically handsome boy genius who was lost at sea. Every girl at my school was in love with you."

"Yeah?" He felt a surge of pride and the return of some of his old confidence. At least _someone _appreciated him. "So, were you in love with me, too?"

"I only had a thing for you for a couple of weeks." She smiled at his deflated expression. "Nothing against you, _cher_. Back then, I had quite the short attention span for boys. I've got girlfriends from high school who're still in love with you to this day, though."

"Seriously?" He sounded like he couldn't decide whether to be flattered or horrified.

"Seriously. In fact, I know one who'd leave her husband in a red hot second if she thought she had a shot at snaring _the _Lucas Wolenczak."

He considered that for a moment. "Is she pretty?" he asked finally, and Lena laughed.

"Depends on your idea of pretty," she replied. "Everybody's got their own opinion on what makes a woman beautiful."

"Does she look anything like you?" he asked, hoping the line wasn't too cheesy, and her lips curved into a sly smile.

"I don't know if I'm what you're looking for," she warned him, practically purring the words into his ear. "Some beauty is dangerous."

Lucas reached up slowly, and when she made no move to pull away, slid his hand into her hair, cupping the back of her head. She leaned in, her face only inches from his, and he smiled.

"_La Belle Dame sans Merci_," he murmured to her, his accent flawless. Her eyes lit up.

"You speak French," she breathed, delighted, and he grinned.

"My dad worked in France for a while when I was a kid. I just kind of picked it up."

"I never knew that about you. Lord, _cher_, those girlfriends of mine would just die if they knew."

"What if they knew I was about to kiss you?"

"Hmm…not if I kiss you first."

He started to lean in, but she was faster, capturing his mouth in a passionate kiss. He had no idea how long they sat there, her knee pressing against his thigh and his hands in her hair as they kissed, but by the time they pulled apart he was breathless and desperate for more.

"Why don't we get out of here?"

Lena's smile was wicked, and Lucas swallowed hard.

"Uh, yeah. Okay," he agreed, taking her outstretched hand and letting her pull him toward the door. He glanced back at the dance floor, hoping to catch a shipmate's gaze long enough to let them know he was leaving, but he couldn't even see the others through the crowd of dancers. _Forget it_, he decided, and wrapped his free arm around Lena's waist. She beamed up at him and he gave her a smile, promptly forgetting about everything but her. Tonight he wasn't Captain Hudson's scapegoat, or Tony's geeky roommate, or the teenage kid whose appearance lagged a decade behind his age. Tonight, he was just a guy, and a beautiful woman had picked him up in a bar and was taking him back to her place.

Resolutely, he pushed all thoughts of _seaQuest _out of his head. While he was at it, he did his best to forget about Sandra Kirby, too. After what had happened with her, he was nervous about leaving a nightclub with a woman he'd just met, but as far as he could tell Lena wasn't a radical activist out to seduce him to further her own causes. She was just a woman who happened to find him irresistibly attractive.

* * *

><p>Nikolai Bazin tapped his brother's shoulder. "That's her," he murmured when Alexei turned, and the younger man cursed, grabbing his own binoculars to see for himself.<p>

"You're right," he replied. "Good eye, Nik. She wasn't supposed to leave for another couple of hours."

"And she wasn't supposed to leave with anyone," Nikolai agreed. "What do we do about him?"

Alexei shrugged. "You know how the boss feels about witnesses," he pointed out. "We'll have to kill them both. Not too close to the nightclub, though."

The Quarter was neutral territory, a place where career criminals and gangbangers could drink side by side with cops and military personnel without the fear of violence erupting. If they killed Thibodeaux and her date here, within shouting distance of the bar, there was sure to be a backlash. Their _bratva _didn't fear the police, the local gangs, or the other mafia families in the area, but that didn't mean they wanted to take them all on at once.

"It would be rude to kill them so close to Benoit's territory," Nikolai agreed. He'd been to The Quarter a time or two himself, and Gary Benoit served the kind of good strong unfiltered vodka that was nearly impossible to find elsewhere in town. There was no point in angering Benoit if they didn't have to.

The brothers folded their collapsible binoculars, checked to make sure their laser pistols were fully charged, and set off into the night after their target.

* * *

><p>"So are we going to your place?"<p>

Lucas was proud of himself for not tripping over the words. His brain still hadn't quite caught up to the reality of the situation, and he was a little worried that if he said or did the wrong thing, Lena might change her mind about taking him home with her.

"No," she replied, surprising him. "There's a nice hotel a few blocks up this way."

"You don't live around here?" he guessed, and she smiled.

"I do, _cher_, but I'm not in the habit of bringing strangers over to my place. It's safer this way."

That gave him pause. Up until now, Lena had seemed so carefree. He was taken aback by her sudden security-conscious practicality.

"Look, if you'd rather - I mean, I could just take you to dinner, or to a movie or something. We don't have to -"

Lena's finger on his lips silenced him.

"You're a sailor," she pointed out gently. "In a day or two, you'll be gone. And I'm not looking for a boyfriend anyway. I'm offering you one night with no strings attached." Her lips curved into a smile. "One really incredible night. But if that's not what you want, you won't get any pressure from me. We can go back to the bar and pretend this never happened. No hard feelings."

Lucas took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. Lena's matter of fact tone told him that she was serious, that at a word from him she'd call the whole thing off. It was oddly reassuring. When Sandra had taken him back to her apartment, she'd been pushy, making sure that he came with her and stayed the whole night. Not that he'd noticed it at the time, but in hindsight it was obvious that Sandra had an agenda. Lena clearly didn't.

"I want to be with you," he said finally, unable to resist a smile at the way her expression brightened. "I just don't have much experience with this kind of thing, you know?"

She grinned, pulling him close for another kiss. "You will," she murmured against his lips. "By tomorrow morning, you'll be an expert."

"I'm looking forward to it." He slid his arms around her waist, holding her close as he kissed her again.

A high-pitched whine shattered the quiet of the night, and Lena was pulling away from him before the noise fully registered in his brain. When it did, he grabbed for her, catching her wrist and yanking her toward the nearest alley.

"Get down!"

He shielded her as best he could, the two of them sprinting for cover as the laser fire continued. Lena ducked into the alley, putting the brick wall of an apartment building between her and the shooter. Lucas was half a second behind her, and he'd almost made it under cover when a searing pain shot through his arm. His momentum carried him to Lena's side as he cried out.

Lena swore, shoving him behind her, and through the haze that had settled over his vision at the throbbing agony in his arm he saw her reach into her purse and pull out what looked like a pulse pistol. Except that didn't make any sense, because why would Lena have a pulse pistol -

She dropped into a crouch, making herself as small a target as possible, and leaned past the edge of the building, returning fire in a smooth sequence of movements that indicated to Lucas he'd made a massive mistake in his choice of female companionship. Again.

"How bad is it?"

His head jerked up when she spoke, and he realized belatedly that the shooting had stopped.

"Your arm," she added, when he didn't respond. "How bad?"

"I'm fine," he snapped, pulling his arm instinctively against his chest as she slid toward him, pulse pistol still gripped in her right hand. "Like you care."

Surprise flashed across her features. "Of course I care, but we need to get out of here. There's a safe house nearby -"

"What's going on? Was all of this a setup? Were you just using me?" he demanded, feeling that familiar ache in his chest. He'd been wrong to trust her. She wasn't interested in him. She was just another Sandra, using him for her own purposes -

"Get over yourself," she retorted, in a tone of voice that said she had no interest in indulging his self-pity. "He was shooting at _me_, you idiot."

That was new. Typically, people who were kidnapping him for their own agendas didn't yell at him or call him an idiot.

"Oh, yeah? How do you know?"

"Because I recognized the shooter, and unless you've done something to piss off the Russian mafia lately, this is about me. Bazin is down but I don't know if he's dead, and he never works alone. Now can we please get the hell out of here before his backup arrives and kills us both?"

She didn't wait for his answer, setting off at a brisk jog down the alley. After a moment's hesitation, he followed her. He still wasn't sure that he trusted her, or that this wasn't some sort of setup to get him to go along with her, but going with her was better than the alternative of sitting around here and waiting for the mafia to show up. With his arm throbbing in protest, he took off after Lena.

* * *

><p>They ran through the city's back alleys for less than ten minutes, but for Lucas, it felt like an eternity. Lena hadn't said anything further to him, but she'd slowed down when it became obvious that he wasn't able to keep up with her any more. His arm felt like someone had taken a red-hot poker to it, and he did his best to focus on anything but the pain.<p>

Their course took them through the streets of downtown New Cape Quest and dumped them out in a lower-middle-class neighborhood that was still and silent in the middle of the night. Lena led him over to a house that didn't have any distinguishing features other than the peeling paint on the porch railing. She picked the lock on the front door with a hairpin while Lucas watched, more convinced every minute that he needed to stop picking up women in bars. It never seemed to end well for him.

Once she had the door open, they entered the living room, which was decorated in bland colors with secondhand furniture. Lena locked the front door behind them and went over to the fuse box as he continued to watch her, confused and in pain.

"What are we doing here?" he asked finally, and she looked up with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Watch this."

She flipped a sequence of switches in the fuse box, and he stared in shock as a portion of the wall in front of her swung open.

"A hidden room?"

"A panic room." She stepped through the open panel, beckoning for him to join her. He glanced at the concealed door as he passed through it; it looked like titanium, and was nearly six inches thick. "The door will stop grenades, rocket launchers, and pulse rifles set to maximum," she informed him, yanking the thick door shut behind them and slamming the locking lever home with her shoulder.

"Is the whole room made of that stuff?" he asked, avoiding the obvious criticism that there weren't any lights turned on in the room. Now that the industrial-strength door was closed, it was so dark that he couldn't see past his own nose.

"It wouldn't be very effective if it wasn't," Lena pointed out. He heard the soft click of a switch, and then the room was flooded with light. He blinked as his eyes adjusted and took his first good look around. This room was clearly intended for a different purpose than the average-looking living room they'd just been in. It was stark, with white walls and no decoration, and it didn't contain much more than a couch situated along one wall and a small stack of cots in the corner. "We'll be safe here," she added. "You should sit down, _cher_. I'll find a first aid kit."

Lena gestured toward the couch as she headed for the far side of the room. He stayed where he was despite the still-throbbing pain in his arm, pinning her with a sharp look.

"If no one else is going to start shooting at us, then I think it's time for you to explain what's going on."

She sighed, digging in one of the cabinets built into the wall and coming up with a bright red box that she brought over and set down on the floor by the couch.

"Look, I'm sorry about all of this. I didn't know I was being targeted, and I sure as hell didn't know there would be an assassin waiting for me outside the bar." She smiled ruefully. "If I had, I would've brought Gary home with me. The man could stop a pulse laser with his disapproving glare alone."

"_Why _are you being targeted?" Lucas insisted. "Who are you?"

"I'm a federal agent. I work for Section Six."

"Section Six?" he repeated, confused. "Not Section Seven?"

"Military intelligence was the first group to be brought under Section rule, as part of the consolidation of the different military units that made up the UEO, but they weren't the onlygroup that ended up as a Section," she told him. "Section Six is the federal law enforcement division. Over a dozen federal agencies were absorbed by Section Six. It happened mostly in the past ten years, which is probably why you aren't familiar with it. Basically, picture the FBI, DEA, ATF, and every other law enforcement agency you can think of all shoved together into one big box made of bureaucratic red tape."

"So what do you do, other than get shot at by the mafia in your down time?"

That drew a smile from her. "I work for START."

The way she said it made it sound like the word 'start' was in all caps, but other than that, he had no idea what she was talking about. She glanced over at him and elaborated when she saw his perplexed expression.

"It's an acronym," she told him. "Special Tactical Action Response Teams. We deal with acute or high risk scenarios; things like negotiating hostage situations, infiltrating criminal operations, and tracking and arresting dealers of illegal weapons or drugs."

"How did you get the mafia angry with you?"

She sighed again. "It's a long story. The short version is that the guy who was shooting at us used to have two brothers in the crime business, but after a drug bust gone wrong a few weeks ago, he's down to one."

"You killed his brother?"

"To be fair, I may also have killed him just now," she pointed out. "I didn't stop to check. And I really need to call my boss and tell him what just happened."

"Especially if there's a third brother who's still out there," Lucas agreed, and then winced as a fresh surge of pain shot through his arm.

"Sit, _cher_," she insisted, steering him over to the couch and opening the first aid kit as he collapsed onto the cushions. "Let me take a look at that."

"I thought you were going to call your boss."

"I will, as soon as I'm sure you aren't planning to drop dead on me."

He would have insisted that Lena call for backup before tending to his arm, since he wasn't enthused by the idea of testing the panic room's titanium walls against any actual laser fire, but Lena had started unbuttoning his shirt while she talked and he was unable to focus on anything but her nimble fingers as she stripped the fabric away, exposing his bare skin.

"Relax." She smiled mischievously up at him as he fidgeted. "You must've known when we left the bar that you wouldn't be wearing that shirt all night."

He started to smile at the innuendo, but it turned to a grimace as her hand closed on his upper arm.

"Don't - _ow_!" he yelped as she manipulated the injury, and she made a sympathetic noise but didn't loosen her grip as she applied disinfectant solution and then a layer of medical sealant.

"Oh, it's barely a graze," Lena informed him, her tone teasing. "You men in uniform act so tough, but you're just a bunch of big babies when you get a boo-boo."

"I was shot," he pointed out defensively. "I should get at least a little credit for that."

"I've been shot," she informed him tartly, most of her attention focused on applying a gauze bandage over his wound. "It never got me anything but unpleasantness. There, you're good as new."

He watched as she dug a phone out of her purse, hitting one of the speed dial buttons.

"Sorry to wake you, sir," she began, standing up and wandering over to the other side of the room as she talked to her boss. "We've got a situation…"

Lucas listened with barely disguised curiosity to Lena's side of the conversation as she described the night's events. In her version of the story, he became 'an acquaintance', which was probably more prudent than calling him 'the one night stand I picked up at the bar'. He was interested that she specified he was Navy, and suspicious when she gave the man on the other end of the call his full name.

After a minute or so of silence on Lena's part, she agreed to something and then hung up. When she turned around, he did his best to appear uninterested, and she laughed as she came back over to flop down next to him on the couch.

"You don't have to pretend you weren't listening," she told him. "In your place, I'd be eavesdropping shamelessly."

"So what's the plan?" he asked, deciding to change the subject rather than discuss his eavesdropping. "And why did he need to know my name?"

"The plan is for you and me to stay put while my team finds both of the Bazins and solves the problem. The head of my team, Agent Wyatt, will probably end up getting Organized Crime involved, so it could be a few hours yet. He needed your name to check up on you and make sure you don't have any ties to the mafia, or the Bazins, or anyone else who might have a stake in getting me killed." Noticing his surprised expression, Lena reached over to pat his leg reassuringly. "It's got nothing to do with you, _cher_. He doesn't trust anyone who isn't a part of his team. If you're going to be in here with me while the rest of the team is out there, he wants to know I'm safe."

"No, I get that," Lucas agreed, thinking of how Bridger had reacted to Sandra even before they'd known that she was trying to manipulate him into betraying the _seaQuest_. Smart leaders didn't entrust the safety of their people to strangers who might not have their best interests at heart. "I wouldn't trust me either, if I didn't know me. I just don't think anyone's ever considered me a threat before."

"And see, people trust me fine until they get to know me," Lena replied with a grin. "No one realizes I'm a threat."

"I treat every woman who carries a pulse pistol in her purse with the utmost respect," he assured her, and she laughed.

"I hope not," she rejoined, her hand moving a little higher on his leg, and he felt his heart leap into his throat. Her expression said she was getting ready to kiss him again, but he didn't think he was quite ready for that after all of the revelations of the past fifteen minutes.

"Is this your safe house?" he asked instead, trying to redirect the conversation back to a neutral topic. She took the hint, letting her hand fall to the couch cushion beside her as she leaned back.

"START agents don't usually work a case long enough to need safe houses," she informed him. "We're a short-term, immediate-action unit. My cousin works Organized Crime, though. This is one of their safe houses. I'm not supposed to be using it - I shouldn't even know where it is, me - but I'll make it right with them later."

"Did your boss know where this place was when you called him?"

"Wyatt knows everything." Her tone was mingled respect and exasperation. "I like to think I know more about the ins and outs of law enforcement than most people, especially in New Cape Quest, but Wyatt makes me feel like a rookie."

"How do you know so much about it, being as young as you are?" Lucas asked, interested, and then stopped as a thought hit him. "Wait, how old _are_ you?"

He winced when the back of her hand made contact with his ribs. It hadn't been a particularly hard hit, but it wasn't exactly a love tap either, and he hadn't been expecting it.

"Here's a tip, _cher_," she told him, raising her eyebrows at him when he looked over at her in surprise. "If you want to get laid, don't go around asking women how old they are."

"Can you give me a ballpark, at least?" he persisted, watching to make sure she wasn't going to take another swing at him. "I'm not sure how big an age difference I'm comfortable with."

"Me either," she retorted. "I'm fine sleeping with a twenty-eight year old, but eighteen is barely legal."

He made a face, not wanting to admit that she had a point.

"I'm legally twenty-eight."

"And I'm legally younger than that, and that's all you're getting out of me," she said archly. "You have to be at least twenty-one to make Section Six, so there's your range."

That was fair enough, he decided. At the bar, he would've guessed she was around twenty-two, but seeing her in action in the alley had raised that estimate by a couple of years. She was as competent and precise with a weapon as Brody was, and that kind of skill didn't develop overnight.

"So why do you know so much about New Cape Quest?" he asked, returning to their previous discussion. "You're clearly not from here."

"How'd you know, _cher_?" she said, thickening her already audible accent with a rueful smile. "I left Louisiana after college when I went to work for Section Six. I've been in NCQ for almost two years, and I make it my business to know everything I can about the place I'm living. I also come from a huge extended family, and they're all law enforcement. It's kind of a family tradition. Because of it, I've got more contacts in the field than most agents twice my age."

"I bet that's helpful," he agreed, glancing over at her again. A strand of her dark blonde hair had fallen into her face, and he restrained himself from reaching over to brush it back. When she'd been just a girl in a bar, he'd been attracted to her, but now that he was finding out more about who she really was, he felt that attraction deepening. She wasn't just a pretty face; she was actually a pretty cool person. "Can I ask you something?"

She made a vague go-ahead gesture.

"If we hadn't been shot at, and we hadn't ended up here together - if the night had just gone the way it was supposed to - would you have told me any of this stuff? About who you are and what you do?"

Lena gave him a wry smile. "Not a chance. Nothing against you, but I don't want people I don't know knowing so much about me. I figure any guy who takes a laser blast meant for me deserves a little more leeway than most, though." She paused, toying with the silver ring she wore on her right hand. "I really am sorry about that, Lucas. If I'd known what was going to happen tonight, I never would have exposed you to that kind of danger."

"At least it meant something," he said, unable to help the bitterness in his voice. "Getting shot protecting you is the first useful thing I've done in weeks."

"Hey." She reached over to touch him, fingers stroking lightly down his bare chest. The gesture sent a pleasant tingle through him, and reluctantly he met her concerned gaze. "What's that about?"

He was going to blow off the question, to say something flippant or maybe try to steal a kiss instead of answering her at all. Instead, he opened his mouth and everything he'd been holding back for the last six weeks came spilling out. He told her how frustrating it was to wake up one day and find out that he'd gone from being a promising young genius to a useless relic overnight, all of his knowledge hopelessly outdated, leaving him struggling just to keep up. How lost he felt without Captain Bridger, who'd been the closest thing he'd ever had to a father. How much he hated Hudson for turning _seaQuest _into a place that felt cold and unfamiliar, for taking away the only home he'd ever really known. How angry he was with himself for being so sharp with his friends these days, but how, in the face of his overwhelming frustration and anxiety, he'd fallen back into his old habit of pushing people away before they could hurt him.

He talked for what felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than ten or fifteen minutes. When he finally fell silent, a wave of exhausted relief hit him, but it was followed closely by dawning horror. He'd finally unburdened himself, had said all of the things he'd been holding in for all this time, but he'd said it all to a woman who was the next best thing to a stranger.

"I can't believe I just told you that." His voice was hollow. "I just met you. I must be seriously screwed up to be telling you this stuff."

At some point during his monologue, Lena had taken his hand in hers, and now she gave it a squeeze.

"It's all right. You have to talk about this stuff, Lucas. Talking bleeds off the poison."

He stared at her blankly, unable to think of any reasonable response. What was he supposed to say to follow something like that?

Lena sighed, tucking her legs up under her on the couch as she leaned into him and rested her head against his chest. Surprised, he put his arm gingerly around her, trying not to aggravate his injury.

"I've been a START agent for almost three years," she told him quietly. "I started out on Team Six. I had good teammates and a decent lead agent, or I thought I did. After a few months, though, one of my teammates started making comments. He'd say things to me, and to other agents about me. Things about the way I looked, the way I dressed…about how attractive he found me. I grew up in a family full of cops and agents, so I knew it was best for female agents to just ignore that sort of thing. I tried, but the more I ignored Grayson, the worse it got."

"Where was the rest of your team?" Lucas demanded, upset on her behalf. Even Hudson, for all of his faults, would never tolerate sexual harassment aboard _seaQuest_. "Why didn't they do anything about it?"

Lena shrugged. "I complained to my lead agent, Davis. He told me to suck it up. The rest of the team stayed out of it; I think they were worried about being caught in the fallout when things finally came to a head. I ended up filing a formal complaint, since Davis wouldn't do anything to stop Grayson. The next day, we got called out on a weapons bust, and during the action I got shot." She was silent for a long moment. "The official ruling by Internal Affairs was accidental friendly fire. Which is a stupid name, because no matter who shoots you, it's not friendly."

"And it wasn't an accident, either, was it?" Lucas asked slowly, realizing what must have happened. "Grayson shot you."

"No one could prove that it wasn't an accident," she pointed out. "Grayson got an official reprimand. That, combined with the harassment complaint, eventually got him kicked out of Section Six. Davis came to see me in the hospital after the bust. It was naive, I guess, but I really thought he'd apologize for not stopping Grayson before that. Instead, he told me that I was off the team."

"He kicked _you _off of the team? Why?"

"He said that he had concerns about my professionalism." Her lips drew back in a vicious snarl. "He also said that if I'd just slept with Grayson, I wouldn't have wrecked his team."

"Seriously?"

"I'm not exactly a prude, me," she acknowledged, her expression softening into a grim smile. "But I'm the only one who gets to decide who I sleep with."

"Man," Lucas muttered, shaking his head. "That really sucks, Lena."

She shrugged again. "It wasn't all bad," she pointed out. "After Davis cut me loose from Team Six, Wyatt asked me to join Team Four. If that hadn't happened, I never would have known what it was like to be part of a real team, with solid teammates and a lead agent who actually cares about his people. Even when I get frustrated with Wyatt for being a humorless killjoy - which he is, _cher_, you have _no_ idea - I never forget what he did for me."

"He's lucky to have you on his team," Lucas told her, and she nodded.

"I'm good at my job. Any team would be lucky to have me."

"And you're so modest, too."

She snickered. "I don't believe in false modesty. Wyatt didn't take me because I was talented, though. He had no way to know if I was any good. We'd never worked together, and it wasn't like Davis was singing my praises to the other team leaders."

"So why did he pick you?"

"He's never said. I suspect one of my cousins might've twisted his arm, but Wyatt is hard to influence, so maybe not. Regardless of why he did it, I know what a chance he took on me. Any agent who's been involved in a scandal like that usually becomes a pariah, no matter whose fault it was." She sighed, snuggling a little closer to him. "Anyway, now it's fair. My story for yours."

"Yeah," Lucas said halfheartedly, his frustration warring with his pleasure at having Lena in his arms and losing by a hair. "I guess."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"If you're so unhappy on _seaQuest_, why don't you leave?"

He pulled back far enough to meet her gaze, looking at her as though she'd grown a second head.

"Leave _seaQuest_?"

"Don't sound so shocked," she told him. "You're a smart guy. I'm sure the thought has crossed your mind. If you hate your new captain so much, and you're so upset with the way things are, why not just go?"

"I joined the Navy so that I could stay," he pointed out. "They don't let you walk away from that commitment just because you're unhappy."

"That's an easy answer."

"What?"

"It's a copout, Lucas," she informed him, with a soft smile to lessen the blow of her words. "Most commitments have an escape clause, a loophole that you can take advantage of. You haven't even looked for one. Why?"

He felt the sudden sting of tears at the back of his eyes. Horrified, he clenched his eyes shut, willing the emotions away. He might have told his secrets to Lena, but there was no way he was going to cry in front of her.

"I don't have anywhere else to go."

They were silent for a long moment, Lucas fighting back tears and Lena at a loss for anything more to say.

"I'm sorry," she said finally, taking his hand again and giving it a squeeze.

"Yeah," he agreed, his voice quiet. "Me too."

A high-pitched chirp interrupted them. They both jumped, and Lena grabbed her phone off of the arm of the couch, flipping it open.

"Hey, Boss," she greeted Wyatt. Lucas leaned back against the couch as she talked, ignoring her conversation in favor of using the time that she was distracted to pull himself together. He'd been under a lot of pressure since the _seaQuest_'s return, with Bridger leaving and Hudson taking over, and finding himself suddenly ten years older and wearing a Navy uniform, but he hadn't really understood how much it had affected him until tonight. Spilling his guts to Lena was a release mechanism, a way for him to let off some of that pressure. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he felt better now that he'd told someone. He just wished it had been someone other than her.

Lena nudged him, and he looked over to find that she was no longer on the phone.

"Well?"

"Good news. They found the Bazins."

"Both of them?"

"Both of them," she agreed. "They're in custody. Organized Crime had a talk with the head of the mafia branch they belong to. Of course, now they're falling all over themselves swearing that they had nothing to do with it, that the Bazins were acting alone. They know that if they admit to targeting an agent, Organized Crime will destroy them."

"Really?"

"It's a delicate peace, Lucas. Organized Crime doesn't have enough evidence or enough personnel to shut down every gang and cartel in the UEO, but if one of them stops playing by the rules, they won't hesitate to make an example out of them. Singling out a specific agent for assassination, particularly one who doesn't even work Organized Crime, won't be tolerated. No, I expect both of the Bazins will be killed in prison by their own mafia organization as a show of good faith. Proof that the rest of their people wouldn't be involved in assassinating cops."

"Wow." Lucas shook his head. "I'm glad I don't have your job."

"You could, you know." At his startled look, she smiled slightly. "Maybe not as a field agent. It would be a waste of your talents, and I get the feeling it isn't really your thing anyway, but Section Six employs a lot more than just field agents. We have analysts and tech specialists and computer gurus who do all kinds of electronic magic to keep us alive and help us catch the bad guys."

"I joined the Navy, Lena. They aren't going to just let me go so that I can come and work for Section Six."

She cleared her throat, glancing away from him. "Section Six has an understanding with the military about sharing personnel. In order to get transferred over, you'd have to know the right people, which you don't…"

"But you do?" he finished for her, and she nodded.

"If you ever decide you really want out, _cher_, just tell me. I'll make it happen."

He stared at her for a long moment. She still wasn't meeting his gaze, looking at the far wall rather than at him.

"You only met me a couple of hours ago. You told me then that you weren't looking for a boyfriend, that this was going to be no strings attached, and now you're offering to find me a new job? A whole new life? Why?"

"I know what it feels like to not have a way out." Lena sighed, sounding tired. "No one should have to feel that way."

"I…" He shook his head slowly. "Thanks, Lena. Really, thank you."

"You're welcome." She smiled up at him. "You know, the threat is taken care of, so we don't have to stay down here."

"Organized Crime would probably like us out of their safe house," he agreed.

"If you'll tell me where you and your shipmates are staying, I'll get you back there. Safely this time, I promise; no more assassins shooting at us."

"So I guess you aren't still interested in, you know…going back to your place."

She looked startled. "I didn't think _you_ were still interested. I mean, I did get you shot."

"Yeah, but according to you, I'm good as new." He tried for a cocky smile, and to his surprise it didn't seem like such a terrible fit. "I don't have to report back to the boat until tomorrow night. I'm yours until then, if you want me."

He gave her a moment to consider the offer, and was rewarded when she gave him the same sly grin she'd given him in the bar.

"No strings attached, right?"

"Absolutely no strings," he promised. Lena took his hand, pulling him toward the door.

"Then let's go, _cher_. We're wasting time."

Lucas laughed. "We've got until tomorrow night, Lena. There's no hurry."

"I promised to make you an expert, remember?" She drew him down for a lingering kiss. "That takes practice."

"Hmm." He leaned down a little further, nuzzling the side of her neck as she giggled. "Then what are we waiting for?"

* * *

><p><em>Twenty-two hours later<em>

Lucas made it back to the boat with only minutes to spare. It seemed more crowded than usual, sailors scurrying up and down the passageways as the boat prepared to leave port, but he managed to avoid running into anyone he would have been required to exchange more than a friendly greeting with - or, consequently, anyone who might have noticed the smug grin that he wasn't quite able to hide.

His luck ran out when he reached his quarters. Tony was there, sprawled out on his bunk, but he jumped to his feet when Lucas stepped through the hatch.

"It's the man of the hour!"

"Hey, Tony," Lucas greeted him, doing his best to sound nonchalant.

"'Hey, Tony'?" the seaman echoed. "That's all I get?"

"What were you expecting?"

"Come on, Luke. You left the bar with that woman, right? The blonde?" Tony grinned, slapping his roommate's shoulder. "You dog! You got some action, huh?"

Lucas rolled his eyes as he tossed his jacket up onto his bunk. "That's between me and the blonde," he replied, and Tony laughed.

"She didn't turn out to be a hooker, did she?" he persisted, and Lucas gave him a disbelieving look.

"No, she wasn't a _hooker_, Tony," he retorted, a little offended by the suggestion that the first woman who'd been interested in him on leave must have been a prostitute. "Why would you think she was a hooker?"

"Hey, Luke?" Tony waited until Lucas looked up, then gave him a meaningful look. "Those two chicks who picked up me and O'Neill at the bar?"

It took Lucas a moment, and then he nearly choked on a laugh. "Are you serious?"

Tony nodded, a rueful grin on his face. "We figured it out at the end of the night. At least we hadn't already taken 'em back to the hotel with us."

"Yeah, because that really would've cost you."

Tony threw a balled-up pair of socks at him and Lucas snickered. He would miss this if he left, he realized suddenly. There were a lot of negatives for him aboard _seaQuest_, but there were positives too. If he went to work for Section Six, he'd be leaving behind every friend he had in the world. Not to mention that there wasn't anyone aboard who had half of his knowledge about the inner workings of the boat; if _seaQuest _ran into trouble and he wasn't around, there was no guarantee that the computer techs aboard would be able to fix the problem. It could put his friends' lives in danger…

"Yo, Luke." Tony waved his hand in front of his roommate's face, interrupting his train of thought. "You still with me?"

"Get your hand out of my face, Tony." Lucas swatted lightly at Tony's hand. "And don't call me Luke."

"You're thinkin' about that girl, aren't you?" Tony grinned, irrepressible. "I guess you had a pretty good leave…and it's all thanks to yours truly. If it weren't for me, you never even would've been at that bar."

Lucas ignored Tony with the ease of long practice, his thoughts returning to Lena. She'd offered him an incredible night, and she'd certainly lived up to her word. They'd spent nearly a full twenty-four hours together, most of them in bed, and he'd learned more in that time than he could have imagined. He'd thought he'd known what sex was. He'd certainly understood the mechanics, and he'd read enough on the subject to teach a class. He'd even had that night with Sandra, although it hadn't been particularly successful. Last night, though, he'd found out that none of that held a candle to being with Lena. Being with her was exhilarating, but there was also something about her that put him at ease. There wasn't any of the awkwardness or embarrassment he'd felt with Sandra or Juliana. He hadn't needed to worry about whether he was doing things right, because she'd been vocal about the things she liked and given him gentle correction on the things she didn't. He'd always been a fast learner and was almost obsessively detail-oriented, both of which were traits that Lena had appreciated enthusiastically. It had been the best night - and day - of his life.

Tony's laughter drew him out of his reverie, and he looked up to find his roommate watching him with the same kind of expression Ben Krieg had once worn whenever Lucas did something that reminded him of how young the computer genius really was.

"You're pretty far gone over her, huh?"

Lucas rolled his eyes again, doing his best to hide his reflexive wince. Tony had no idea how far gone he would really be if he decided to take Lena up on her offer to work for Section Six.

"I'm going to bed," Lucas declared, deciding that nothing good was going to come from letting this conversation go any further.

Tony watched as Lucas climbed into his bunk, still fully dressed, and smiled to himself. The kid had it bad for that girl. It was good for him to be interested in something other than computers once in a while.

"Does Hudson still have you working double shifts?"

"What do you think?"

"That's a yes," Tony decided. "What's with him, anyway? He picks on you way more than any of the other officers, except maybe O'Neill."

"I'd noticed," Lucas agreed dryly.

"It doesn't seem fair," his roommate opined. "You work hard, but he doesn't appreciate it."

Lucas shrugged, thinking again about Lena's offer. "Yeah, well, some people don't know what they've got until it's gone."

Tony considered that for a minute, not sure what Lucas meant. It wasn't like Lucas was going anywhere. Sure, the last time the kid had met a girl, he'd nearly left _seaQuest_, but this was different. He was in the Navy now, so he couldn't just quit - which was a good thing, since Hudson probably wouldn't let him come back if he left. Not like Bridger had. Still, the way Lucas had said it made him a little concerned.

"Hey, Luke?"

There was no answer. Tony looked over at him and grinned when he saw that Lucas was passed out cold in his bunk. He guessed it didn't matter that much what Lucas had meant, since the boat had already left port. There would be time later to find out whether Lucas was thinking about leaving _seaQuest_ for this girl, and plenty of time to talk him out of it before their next shore leave.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I know this has taken forever and I'm sorry! There will be at least two more chapters to this story, and they should follow along with the course of Season 3.

* * *

><p><em>Three months later<em>

Lucas slid into the chair at his desk, glancing at the clock and automatically converting the numbers from Zulu Time to the time in New Cape Quest. It was a little late to be making a social call, even by Lena's standards, but Tony had hung around their quarters for longer than usual before heading to the gym.

Lena answered on the fifth ring, looking rumpled and half-asleep. He thought she was adorable that way, but he knew from previous late night vid calls that she disagreed and he had no interest in sparking an argument.

"Sorry if I woke you," he said instead, and she shrugged.

"I just got back from a mission in San Francisco," she replied. "The whole team's been awake for three days straight. I came in the door a couple of hours ago and passed out on the couch."

"Then I'm really sorry I woke you. I can call back tomorrow -"

"Don't worry about it, _cher_." She yawned and stretched, the motion giving him a glimpse of skin as the hem of her t-shirt rode up, and he did his best to hide a grin. "I should get up and eat something anyway, and then go sleep in an actual bed."

"How did the mission go?"

"The good guys survived and the bad guys got arrested, so I'd call it a success." She glancd over at the mirror on the far wall, making a face when she saw her reflection and reaching up to fix her hair. "It actually ended up being a lot of tech work. Hannah was happy, but the rest of us were bored stiff. When we weren't busy being shot at, anyway."

During their conversations over the past few months, he'd learned a lot about her teammates, just like she'd learned about the _seaQuest _crew. Hannah was the team's computer specialist, a job that was similar to the one that Lena had offered him. The biggest difference was that Hannah was part of a team and worked in the field, and if Lucas transferred to Section Six, he'd be working exclusively at their headquarters. On the whole, he thought he'd prefer having a desk job over being shot at.

"What kind of tech work?"

"Something about tracing fragmented vid calls to points of origin…and you just perked up like Rico when he sees a good-looking redhead."

"How fragmented were the calls?"

Lena rolled her eyes. "Not my department. Ask Hannah about it at dinner on Monday. She'll tell you all of the gritty details."

"I'm still not sure about meeting your teammates."

"What, are you nervous?" She laughed, surprised, when his expression revealed his answer. "Why would you be nervous? They're dying to meet you. And you've already met Hannah through the vidlink."

He'd actually spoken to Hannah several times, mostly to lend some credibility to the cover Lena had set up so that the two of them could communicate without Hudson or anyone else becoming suspicious. He'd enjoyed talking to her more than he'd expected to. Hannah was as single-minded as he could be at his worst, focused solely on whatever technological problem was at hand. During one of those calls, they'd had an hour-long discussion about transduction algorithms, and it had been a nice change to be talking to someone who not only understood his work but could give him a run for his money intellectually. He was pretty sure that Hannah liked him, or at least didn't dislike him, but he wasn't sure how the rest of Lena's team would react to him.

"I just want to make a good impression, Lena. I know they're important to you."

"You're important to me too." They shared a smile, and then she shook her head as she got up from the couch. "I'm still not sure how that happened," she added, raising her voice so that he could still hear her as she disappeared into the kitchen. "You were supposed to be a one night stand."

"So were you," he reminded her. "And here I am three months later, about to leave for New Cape Quest to spend a week with you."

"You're also attending a conference," she pointed out, reappearing with a bag of chips in one hand and a beer in the other. "Since the infamous Captain Hudson wouldn't approve your leave request unless there was something in it for him."

After Tim's last request for leave to visit his family had been denied, on the grounds that _seaQuest_'s operational needs wouldn't be met if the communications officer was gone for more than 48 hours, Lucas hadn't even tried to apply for routine leave. Instead, he'd found a conference in New Cape Quest that was discussing the newest programming innovations being used in operating systems around the world, and then he'd taken the registration form to Commander Ford. After a few minutes of Lucas going on about tertiary coding sequences and the difficulties of integrating _seaQuest_'s decade-old systems with the newer defensive software the Navy used, Ford's eyes had started to glaze over, and he'd promised to work something out with Hudson so that Lucas could attend.

He'd been summoned to Hudson's office the next morning, and had half-expected the captain to accuse him of trying to shirk his duty by going to the conference. Instead, Hudson had approved his request and added that he was glad to see Lucas taking a more active role as the Chief Computer Analyst and head of the Computer Systems department. Lucas had been bemused but relieved by Hudson's praise, and had immediately started planning the trip.

"I'm still amazed that he's letting me go."

"Section Six loves conferences and training seminars and any other bureaucratic nonsense they can send us to." Her tone of voice suggested she didn't share their opinion. "Signing up for one will get you out of almost anything. It figures the Navy would be the same way."

"This should actually be a pretty good conference." He'd gone through the list of offered seminars and been impressed at the topics that were being covered. "I'm looking forward to seeing the lectures."

"And I'm looking forward to seeing the hotel's private beach," Lena rejoined. She'd taken the week off to spend with him, but had drawn the line at actually attending any of his lectures, claiming that she wouldn't understand them anyway. "I don't intend to do anything productive for the entire week."

"Thanks for getting us a room at the hotel, by the way," he said. The Navy had approved his application for them to pay for the conference, but they'd given him a budget of fifty dollars per day for room and board, which wasn't enough to rent a broom closet in the ritzy hotel where the conference was being held. He'd thought Lena would want both of them to stay at her place, which was less than half an hour from the hotel, but she'd declared that she wasn't spending her vacation time hanging around her own apartment and had rented them a room for the week. He was glad to be staying at the hotel so he wouldn't have to commute to and from the conference, but he was a little uncomfortable with Lena spending what he was sure was an exorbitant amount of money to pay for his vacation.

"What's that face about?"

"What?" he asked, pretending ignorance. "You know, you should really be eating a decent meal after three days of working non-stop."

She took a sip of her beer. "I've been on the other side of the country; my fridge is empty. And don't change the subject. You made a face when you talked about the hotel room."

"No, I didn't."

"Among my many other exceptional skills, _cher_, I interrogate suspects. I have to be able to read people. And in spite of _your _many other exceptional skills, you are a terrible liar."

"That's actually true," he conceded. He'd never been any good at lying when he was a kid, and he was pretty sure he was getting worse at it as he got older.

"I bet I can figure out why you're upset without you saying anything else." She popped a chip into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully and studying his expression through the vidscreen. "Was I too pushy, booking the room before I asked you about it? No, that's not it. Is it the money, because - oh, there it is."

"I hate it when you do that, Lena."

"Can't help it. I've been learning to spot a liar my whole life. One of the dangers of growing up in a family full of cops." Lena tilted her head to the side, giving him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about the money; it's not coming out of my paycheck."

"No?"

"Nah. You aren't the only one with an enterprising daddy."

"I thought your father was a Section Six agent," he said, momentarily distracted.

"He was. He retired a few years ago and started up a private security company. It's a lucrative business, especially when you've got the pull to recruit the best agents in the UEO."

"If that's the case, then why are you working for Section Six instead of for him?"

She laughed. "He _only_ recruits the best, Lucas. I'm good, but I'm still learning, and there's nowhere better to learn how to be an agent than inside Section Six. He'll recruit me when he thinks I'm ready."

"You're okay with that? I mean, it doesn't bother you that your own father doesn't - I mean -"

"That he doesn't think I'm good enough to work for him?" Her smile forgave the question. "It's not hurtful, Lucas. It's true. I know what the standard is for his people and I don't meet it yet. I don't want him to lower his standards just because I'm his daughter." A hint of mischief crept into her expression as she added, "Besides, I haven't decided if I'll take the job when he does offer it to me."

"Seriously?"

"I like the job I have." Her smile became a full-fledged grin. "And I can't decide if it would infuriate him or if he'd enjoy me turning him down. I suspect it'd be the latter."

"You think he'd be happy if you turned down his job offer?"

"He's an interesting man, _mon pere_. He admires independence. But just because I don't work for him doesn't mean he makes me live on an agent's salary. My mother doesn't approve of him giving me extra money, so he does it behind her back and she pretends she doesn't know. It keeps everyone happy."

"You have a weird relationship with your parents."

"Pot and kettle, _cher_," she told him, but her voice was gentle. She knew enough about his parents to know that they were a sore spot. They hadn't even contacted him when _seaQuest _had reappeared; they'd left that job to the family lawyer, who'd also been tasked with explaining that his inheritance and all of the accounts that were in his name, including all of the money he'd earned on his own before his disappearance, had been absorbed into the family estate after he'd been declared legally dead. The lawyer had promised that his father would set up a new account for him, but he hadn't heard anything about it since. He didn't care that much about the money - what was he going to do with it on a submarine? - but he wasn't sure he liked having his girlfriend, or whatever Lena was to him now, paying for everything. "Regardless, my father's been on me to take a decent vacation for almost two years. He'd be happy to know that he's footing the bill."

"So you think he'd approve of his daughter paying for a swanky hotel room so that some sailor she slept with once can spend a week debauching her?"

He was teasing her, mostly, and her smile widened in response. With all of the stress he'd been under, his sense of humor had suffered, but over the past month or so it had started to revive. He was actually a pretty funny guy when he wasn't busy being angry or depressed about all of the unpleasantness he'd been through.

"That's three."

"Three what?"

"Three errors in one sentence." She held up one hand, ticking them off on her fingers. "First, you aren't 'some sailor'. You're a cute, smart, talented _officer_ who's got a standing job offer for a position working Section Six Information Analysis. They don't just hand those out like party , if you're using the colloquial definition of 'slept with', then I slept with you more than once that weekend. And third, I think you're a little confused about who's going to be debauching who."

He shook his head, unable to stifle a laugh. "I stand corrected."

"Good, because I'm done standing. Or sitting. It's past time for me to be horizontal."

"I wish I was there." He gave her a roguish smile. "And not just because you're going to be horizontal."

She laughed, downing the last of her beer and getting wearily to her feet. "You'll be here soon enough, _cher_. Good night."

"Night, Lena. Oh, hey, are you having any computer problems?"

That was the cover she'd set up for them, that he was one of the remote technical liaisons that Section Six sometimes used to fill in the gaps of their technology support department. The position itself would have been a step down for him, as opposed to the more prestigious position he'd been offered at Section Six headquarters, but it gave him an official excuse to talk to Lena as often as he wanted…provided that they discussed some kind of technical issue during the call.

Her apologetic expression said she was tired enough that she'd completely forgotten about their arrangement until he brought it up. "Not since the last time I called, actually. I think you fixed the problem. Thanks for checking back with me, though."

"Well, I know Section Six appreciates good customer service."

"I appreciate it too."

"Go get some sleep, beautiful."

She blew him a kiss and ended the call. The hatch to his quarters swung open as the screen went dark, and he looked up quickly, but it was just Tony coming back from the gym. Judging from his wet hair and the towel around his neck, he'd stopped at the showers before returning.

"Who were you talking to, Luke?"

"Section Six," he replied, glad that Lena had set up that cover for them so he didn't have to constantly lie to his shipmates. As she'd already pointed out, he wasn't much of a liar.

"They call you all the time," Tony said, shaking his head as he tossed his towel onto the shelf. "Don't they have any computer guys of their own to help them?"

"Yeah, well, I'm special," Lucas retorted, and Tony smirked.

"Yeah, 'cause you're a genius. Too bad for you that the Navy stuck you with a babysitting detail. If you were really such a genius, you'd be able to get out of it."

"It's not babysitting, Tony. It's a technical liaison position. Plenty of other officers do the same thing for Section Six."

"You're working special details and going to special conferences." Tony shook his head. "I guess you really are special."

"I'd take that as a compliment if you didn't say 'special' like it was an insult," Lucas informed him, watching his roommate's expression with interest. Tony usually enjoyed exchanging friendly barbs with him, but today he looked more worried than amused. "What's up with you, Tony?"

"Nothing."

"Something's bothering you."

"It's nothing, Luke. Drop it." Tony paused, then added, "Since you're going to New Cape Quest for that conference, are you gonna call that girl?"

"What girl?" It was his turn to be on the defensive, hoping Tony hadn't figured out that he'd been in contact with Lena since their last shore leave.

"What _girl_?" Tony repeated, disbelieving. "The one you went home with last time we were there. The hot blonde."

"Oh. Yeah, I'm - I might see her while I'm in town."

He really was a terrible liar, he decided, knowing Tony had seen right through that.

"You've got a date with her, don't you?"

Lucas sighed. "So what if I do? There's no regulation that says I can't see her, as long as I attend the conference during the day."

"I'm not saying that, Luke. If you wanna get together with a beautiful woman in your downtime, good for you."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Look, I remember what happened the last time you met a beautiful woman, all right?"

"Tony-"

"Just tell me you aren't gonna go AWOL over this one, because Hudson isn't gonna let you slide like Bridger did."

Lucas sighed. "She isn't anything like Sandra, and I'm not the stupid kid I was when Bridger was around. I'm not going AWOL."

It was technically the truth; if he left the Navy for Section Six, he would do it with the Navy's approval. Seeing Tony's relief, though, his reassurance felt like a lie.

"Are you packed and everything? You're leaving in the morning, right?"

"Yeah. I finished packing a little while ago."

"You got a dress uniform? I bet you'll need it for stuff there. Formal dinners or something."

"Yes, _Mom_, I have my dress blues."

"Good. Take your lady out someplace nice." Tony flopped down onto his bunk. "Turn off the light, would you?"

"Sure. Night, Tony."

"Night, Luke."

"And don't call me Luke."

Tony snorted. "Whatever."

* * *

><p>The trip to New Cape Quest was uneventful, as was the cab ride to the hotel. The place was as posh as it looked on the website, and he was glad again that Lena had decided to get them a room. Even though he'd be attending lectures during the days, he was still going to enjoy staying there; it would be a welcome change from the small quarters he shared with Tony.<p>

He would've headed to the registration desk, but Lena had sent him a short message while he was still in the cab. All it contained was their room number and the words 'clothing optional', which he hoped was a specific invitation from her and not the policy of the hotel. He was looking forward to Lena opting out of clothing while they were alone, but he wasn't sure he wanted to spend a week at a nudist beach resort with a bunch of his fellow computer geeks.

Lucas took the elevator to the fifteenth floor, finding their room without any trouble. It only took a few seconds for Lena to answer his knock. When the door opened, he was suddenly speechless.

"Took you long enough to get here," she informed him with a smile. She waited a moment, and when he made no move to enter the room, added, "Were you planning to come in, or did you want to spend the week sleeping in the hallway?"

Her words prompted him out of his stupor enough to make him step inside, and he dropped his seabag carelessly by the door as she shut the door behind him. He knew he was staring at her like an idiot, but he couldn't help himself. She was wearing a silken red robe, extremely short by anyone's standards, with her dark blonde hair unbound and falling around her shoulders in waves. She looked like a fantasy come to life.

"See something you like?" she murmured, her hands falling to the belt that held the robe shut. She untied it swiftly and shrugged out of the robe, letting it fall to the ground behind her. He wouldn't have believed that she could look any sexier than she had with the robe on, but underneath it she was wearing a tiny scrap of lingerie that defied gravity simply by staying in place. "Say something, Lucas."

"I -" He swallowed hard. "I think I just forgot how."

Lena laughed, delighted, and slid her arms around him. "Then don't say anything, _cher_. Just kiss me."

That, he could do.

* * *

><p>Lucas woke with a start, disoriented. This wasn't his bunk or his quarters. He started to push himself up, to take a look around, but his hand brushed against something soft -<p>

"Mmm…hey, _cher_."

It came back to him in a rush. He wasn't aboard _seaQuest_, he was at the computer systems conference, and he'd spent most of the afternoon making love to Lena. She was curled up next to him now, watching him with heavily lidded eyes.

"I have to register," he said suddenly, the unpleasant realization hitting him. "What time is it? The conference registration booth is only open until six. I should've done it when I got here, but I wanted to see you first, and I -"

"Lucas." Her hand on his bare chest silenced him. "I registered you this morning."

"You did?"

She shrugged. "They always close those booths early, and I figured we might be busy with other things when you got here."

"They let you register me?"

"I told them you were worried that your launch might run late. They didn't ask any questions. I don't think they really cared one way or the other." She paused, then added, "Of course, I also told them I was your girlfriend."

"Yeah?" He propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at her expectant expression. "Did you mean it? I mean, that you were my - because you probably just told them that so they'd let you check me in, not because you wanted to, um -"

"I told you when we met that I wasn't looking for a boyfriend," she reminded him, and he exhaled sharply.

"Yeah. I remember."

"But I guess things have changed since then," she added with a small smile. "I wasn't planning to fall for you, Lucas, but I did."

"Yeah?" he said again, his tone softer this time, and her smile widened as he stroked a fingertip along the curve of her jaw.

"Yeah. But I'm also not in the habit of just declaring myself to be somebody's girlfriend."

Now he was confused, but she was still smiling, which he took as a good sign.

"So are you saying that you're going to be my girlfriend or not?"

Lena laughed. "I'm saying that I'd like your opinion on the subject before I go around telling any more people that we're in a relationship. Do you _want_ me to be your girlfriend?"

"You're kidding, right?" he asked, disbelieving. "Of course I do."

"Good, then that's settled." She stretched lazily, arms over her head as she arched her back. "I'm hungry. Feed me."

He grinned, leaning down to kiss her bare shoulder. "You're something else, you know that?"

"Something wonderful," she agreed. "Feed me, Lucas."

"We can order room service," he offered, and she wrinkled her nose.

"I want to go out for a nice dinner. What time is it?"

He picked up his watch from where he'd discarded it on the nightstand, wincing at the time it displayed as he put it back on his wrist. He'd forgotten that he had somewhere he was supposed to be tonight, and he'd be lucky if he wasn't late. "Actually, the welcome reception for everyone attending the conference starts in half an hour. I know you don't want to go to the lectures with me, but how would you feel about coming to the party tonight? They're serving dinner, and given how extravagant everything in this hotel is, the dinner is pretty much guaranteed to be nice."

"That depends," she replied with a wry smile. "Is it an open bar?"

"It is."

"Then I'm in."

"Great. I wasn't really looking forward to going alone."

"It's a good thing your girlfriend is here, then," she rejoined, kissing him lightly before turning her attention to the closet. "How do you want to play it?"

"Play what?" he asked, watching as she appraised the dresses hanging in the closet. She'd brought enough clothing to stay for at least a month, which was funnier when he considered that she lived twenty minutes away and could have easily gone home to get anything she wanted.

"The reception." She pulled out a slinky teal-colored dress, holding it up to herself with a frown and then hanging it back up in favor of an equally slinky black dress. "Do you want me to go off on my own and socialize, or do you want your adoring girlfriend hanging off of your arm all night? I'm yours to command."

"I don't want to tell you what to do," he replied slowly, startled by the question. "Lena, I'm not going to start trying to control you just because we're dating."

"Oh, _cher_, no," she said, shaking her head. "Nobody controls me; ask any of my teammates if you don't believe me. I just meant that this reception is your thing. I'm only going because I want to be there for you, so you tell me how I'll be most helpful to you and that's what I'll do."

Lucas ducked his head to hide an embarrassed flush. He'd misunderstood the intent behind her offer, and had been both offended and concerned that she'd assumed he would want to tell her how to behave.

Her soft footsteps approached him, and he looked up as she slid her arms around his neck. "You're good people, Lucas," she murmured to him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "You aren't the kind of guy who would try to tell any woman what to do. Which is good, because I have a habit of punching those guys in the face, and I like your face just the way it is."

"I like your face too."

She kissed him again. "I have an important question for you."

"What?"

Lena stepped back over to the closet, holding up two of her dresses. "Which one should I wear tonight?"

He shrugged helplessly. "You look beautiful in everything, Lena."

She beamed at him. "Right answer," she told him, putting the red dress back. "I'm going to grab a quick shower."

"Okay," he agreed, moving over to the corner of the room where he'd dropped his bag and digging through it to find his dress uniform. "I'll take mine after you're finished."

She cleared her throat, and he looked up to find her watching him with a seductive smile.

"Or you could join me," she pointed out. "It'd be faster."

"I don't think that's true," he said as she took his uniform from him and shook it out, placing it on a hanger. "In fact, I think that if we shower together, we're going to be very late to the reception."

"I'm okay with that," she informed him, and he nodded.

"Yeah. So am I."

* * *

><p>They were only twenty minutes late to the reception, which was nothing short of a miracle. Lena had finally settled on the teal dress, deciding that it went better with his uniform than any of her other dresses. She'd worn her hair down at his behest; she'd asked his opinion, and he thought it was beautiful that way. Now, though, having to constantly resist the urge to run his fingers through it, he wondered if he should have had her pin it up. Of course, that would have left her shoulders bare, and then he'd just be fighting a different battle with himself. He loved the soft curve of her shoulders as much as he loved the feel of her hair beneath his fingertips.<p>

He was aware that his desire for her was bordering on unhealthy. They'd made love twice in the past few hours, and he was still half-crazed with lust. He'd said something to her about it before they'd left the room and she'd laughed, chalking it up to three months of distance-enforced celibacy and then kissing him in a way that suggested he wasn't the only one who was still feeling lascivious. He suspected that if he'd offered to skip the reception, or any dinner at all, in favor of going back to bed, she would have agreed despite her complaints about being hungry. It certainly would've been better than standing around here, being stuck wearing his uncomfortable dress uniform and exchanging pleasantries with a bunch of computer geeks who recognized his name and asked him a bunch of intrusive questions about where he'd been for the past decade while they pretended not to be staring at Lena's chest.

"That's fascinating, Chip," Lena was saying to their current conversation partner, a programmer who'd founded an Internex gaming site that made more money in a day than the military paid Lucas in a year. "You did all of that yourself?"

"Well, I hired a contractor to put in the Jacuzzi." He leered openly at Lena. "The mansion is only a couple of hours from here. If you'd like a tour, we could take my private jet."

"Oh, I don't know, Chip," she replied, and Lucas looked over at her as she gave his arm a light squeeze. "What do you think, _cher_? Should we go see Chip's place?"

Lucas hid a smile as Chip's smug expression faded. "I don't know, sweetheart. I wouldn't want to miss the conference."

"You can't miss the conference," Lena agreed as she turned to face Lucas, reaching up to straighten his tie and giving him a quick wink. "You're the smartest guy here. What would they do without you? Mmm, and you look so handsome in that uniform, too."

She'd moved closer to him while she talked, and now the length of her body was flush against his, their lips only centimeters apart.

"I'm going to grab another glass of wine," Chip sighed, clearly knowing when he was defeated.

"Bye, Chip," Lucas said, not taking his gaze away from Lena's.

Lena waited a long moment, watching out of the corner of her eye as Chip retreated to the bar.

"He's gone," she murmured finally, and Lucas smiled, leaning in to give her a tender kiss before releasing her.

"You're very good at getting rid of those guys."

"I hang out in a bar most nights," she pointed out. "I've had lots of practice."

"Well, you're putting it to good use tonight," he replied, his arm going around her waist as he guided her over to one of the buffet tables. "Look, they're serving dessert."

"I shouldn't have any - ooh, chocolate cake!"

He grinned as she grabbed a plate of cake. Lena did that ridiculous girl thing where she pretended not to want dessert because she was watching her weight, although in his opinion she was perfectly proportioned. Thankfully, her refusal of sweets tended to be token protests at best, and anything chocolate blew those protests right out of the water. He took a small plate of chocolate-covered strawberries for himself, fresh fruit being a rarity on a submarine, and they brought their desserts and wine glasses over to one of the standing-height tables scattered throughout the ballroom.

"If you ever go to another one of these conferences, let me know."

"Is the cake so good that you want to come to the next one? Or will I be warning you so that you can be assigned to a mission somewhere remote and you'll have an excuse not to join me?"

"Oh, I'm coming. I'm never going to force you to go to one of these things alone. It's worse than facing a BPI."

"That's not an acronym I'm familiar with, although I think I take your meaning anyway."

"A Board of Professional Inquiry," she told him, taking a long sip of her wine. "It's where agents' careers go to die. I had to testify in front of one after Grayson shot me. Thankfully, I wasn't the target of that particular inquiry."

He leaned in to kiss her temple and was rewarded with a halfhearted smile. She always got that weary expression when she talked about Grayson.

"Lucas?"

That wasn't Lena, but it was a familiar voice. He kept his arm around Lena's waist as he looked over his shoulder to see who had spoken, and his heart stuttered in his chest when he saw the couple standing behind them.

"Juliana? Nick?"

Lena's hand brushed his, a reassuring caress that told him he sounded as stunned as he felt. He hadn't heard anything from either Juliana or Nick since _seaQuest_'s return, although he'd looked both of them up on the Internex the first week he'd been back. The matching rings they wore confirmed the information he'd found then.

"It's - it's really good to see you." Juliana's eyes glistened with unshed tears, and she couldn't seem to decide what to do with her hands. Nick was more direct, throwing his arms around his old friend and giving him a crushing hug.

"Where the hell have you been?" Nick demanded, clapping him on the back several times. "It was like you and your whole submarine dropped off the face of the earth for a decade."

That was actually pretty close to the truth, but Lucas gave the rote answer that had been drilled into every crew member.

"It's classified."

"Well, classified looks good on you, man. You've barely aged a day." Nick gave his back one final clap and released him, stepping back to put his own arm around Juliana as Lucas reached blindly for Lena. She slid smoothly into his grasp again, her left hand guiding his to rest on her hip as she offered Nick her right hand to shake.

"I don't think we've been introduced," she said, giving Lucas a moment to regain his equilibrium. "Lena Thibodeaux."

Nick grinned, taking her hand in his. "Nick Green. It's a pleasure. What's a beautiful woman like you doing with this guy?"

"I could ask your companion the same question," Lena pointed out with a smile, and Nick laughed. Juliana still looked rattled, but she took Lena's hand when it was offered to her.

"Juliana Green," she said slowly, as though she wasn't sure about her answer.

"Lena." She shook the brunette's hand and then released it, giving the other couple the once-over. Nick was visibly delighted to see his old friend, but Juliana looked uncomfortable, and Lena wondered if she and Lucas didn't get along or if they'd dated in the past. It was clearly one or the other, and she was leaning toward 'ex-girlfriend'.

"You really do look great," Nick was telling Lucas. "I've missed you, man. What've you been up to since you've been back?"

"I'm still on _seaQuest_," Lucas said, seeming to regain a little of his equilibrium with the change in subject. "I joined up."

"Yeah, the uniform was my first clue," Nick agreed with another grin. "What about you, Lena? Do you work on _seaQuest _too?"

"I actually live in New Cape Quest," she replied. "We met a few months ago while Lucas was on shore leave."

"Lucas always did have good taste in women." He gave Juliana a little squeeze, confirming Lena's suspicion that the woman in Nick's arms had dated Lucas at some point.

They talked for a few more minutes, Nick catching Lucas up on the developments in their mutual acquaintances' lives over the past ten years. Lena noticed shrewdly that every time the conversation started to turn toward how Juliana and Nick had ended up together, Juliana changed the subject, and she started to wonder if maybe Juliana had still been dating Lucas when the _seaQuest _disappeared. It would explain why Lucas hadn't visited Nick since he'd returned, because otherwise he and Nick seemed to be good friends.

Eventually Juliana spotted someone she worked with and politely excused both herself and her husband to go say hello. Nick looked like he would've preferred to stay and talk with Lucas, but one sharp glance from his wife had him heading across the room with a promise to talk more to Lucas during the conference.

"You and Nick were close, weren't you?" Lena murmured as they turned back to their forgotten desserts, and Lucas sighed.

"Yeah, we were."

"Sucks to have your best friend steal your girlfriend," she observed, taking a sip of her wine and having the satisfaction of watching surprise flash across his face.

"How did you know?" he asked, and she shrugged.

"I've seen a lot of betrayal over the years," she replied, setting down her wine glass in favor of her fork. "It comes in different shades, but it's all the same color."

"Don't be deep," he told her wryly, contemplating his plate of strawberries for a long moment before selecting one. "I can't handle deep right now."

"I'm guessing she was the one who seduced him," she added, when she was finished savoring the last bite of her cake. "And I'm guessing that he didn't know you were still dating her when you disappeared, because he didn't give any indications of feeling guilty about their relationship."

"You know, I don't mind it so much when you're using your super cop powers to read other people's minds," he informed her, and she smiled, tilting her face up to kiss him.

"Mmm…you taste like strawberries."

"You taste like chocolate," he rejoined, and her smile took on a wicked tint.

"How would you feel about taking some of those strawberries to go?"

"I'd feel very good about that."

* * *

><p>The first few days of his leave passed too quickly for Lucas, in a jumble of intellectually stimulating lectures and five-star restaurant dinners and passionate lovemaking that left him wondering how he had ever thought that staying on <em>seaQuest <em>could be better than staying with Lena. Before he knew it, it was Monday evening, and he and Lena were getting ready to go to dinner with her teammates.

True to her word, Lena had spent the last few days sprawled out on the beach while he attended the conference, showing an impressive dedication to improving her tan. She was as relaxed tonight as he'd ever seen her, sprawled out across their bed like a lounging _odalisque_ in an antique painting. By contrast, he was becoming more stressed by the minute. He wanted her teammates to like him, both because they were important to her and because he was thinking more and more about taking the job Lena had offered him, working for Section Six, and he wanted them to support the idea.

"What should I wear tonight?" he asked, glancing through the meager amount of his clothing in their closet. All he really had that would be appropriate for a nice restaurant was his dress uniform, which he'd worn to dinner every night with Lena but which didn't really seem right for the occasion.

There was a rustling from the bed, and he turned around as Lena tossed a shopping bag at him. He caught it in mid-air and opened it to find a bundle of clothes.

"For you, for tonight," she explained. "I got it at the mall today. You don't have to wear it, but I didn't think you'd want to wear your uniform when all of us will be in civilian clothing."

He took out the clothing, knowing that no matter what it was, he would wear it. Lena had given him _carte blanche_ with her appearance at his reception, from the dress she chose to the way she wore her hair. He owed her the same consideration for the dinner with her teammates tonight.

The bag contained a blue oxford shirt and crisp gray slacks, both in his size. They were classic styles, the sort of thing he didn't normally gravitate toward, but once he had them on he decided that he might have to expand his fashion horizon. Most of his civilian clothing was either baseball shirts or t-shirts; paired with baggy jeans, they were the mainstay of his wardrobe. In this outfit, though, he looked older. More professional. More like the kind of guy who might work for Section Six and have a girlfriend like Lena.

She came up behind him, sliding her arms around his waist and meeting his gaze in the mirror.

"You look very handsome," she murmured, her chin resting on his shoulder. "You know, _cher_, we don't have to be at the restaurant for almost an hour. And it's the restaurant right downstairs, so it'll only take us a minute to get there."

"You are a terrible influence," he informed her, turning around to take her in his arms. "I'd like nothing more than to spend the next hour in bed with you, but I'm not willing to risk being late to meet your teammates."

Lena sighed. "All right, but you owe me."

"I _owe _you?" he laughed. "Fine. If you can keep your hands to yourself until after dinner, I promise we'll spend the rest of the night in bed together. Deal?"

"Hmm." She considered the offer for a moment. "Define 'keep my hands to myself'."

"You know what I mean."

"I need specific guidelines. Can I hold your hand at dinner?"

"Yes."

"Can I put my hand on your knee?"

He gave her a stern look. "No."

"How about a little higher?"

"_No_."

She laughed, kissing his cheek before releasing him. "You're no fun."

"You're fun enough for both of us," he informed her. "I'm going to have to wear my uniform shoes with this, I guess. I don't have anything else that would look right. And I probably need a plain belt -"

Lena cleared her throat, and when he looked up, she was holding another shopping bag with a sheepish expression on her face.

"You bought me shoes," he guessed, trying and failing not to smile. "And a belt."

"I take care of my man," she replied dryly, and he choked on a laugh as she threw the bag at him, catching it before it could hit him in the head.

* * *

><p>His worries turned out to be unfounded. They were actually fifteen minutes early for dinner, and they would have been the first ones there if Lena's boss, Agent Wyatt, hadn't made a habit of showing up half an hour early to every social outing in order to assess the area for possible security threats. Lena had interrupted his scan of the room for weapons to introduce him to Lucas, and then she'd managed to move all three of them to the hostess stand and get them seated without anyone noticing that Wyatt was looking around the upscale restaurant like he expected to find one of Section Six's ten most wanted terrorists sitting at one of the tables. Lucas had waited until Wyatt was occupied, talking to their server about the restaurant's emergency exits, before giving Lena a perplexed look, and she'd grinned and mouthed 'routine paranoia'. Apparently, she'd already been aware of her boss's bizarre security obsession.<p>

Hannah was the next one to arrive, and she nodded perfunctorily to Wyatt and Lena before taking the empty seat beside Lucas.

"How's the conference going?" she asked him, and he shrugged.

"The days are pretty long, but it's interesting. Matt Quinn spoke this morning about firewalls and code interdiction, which was probably the highlight of the entire week."

Matt Quinn was a programmer who'd become a legend in the decade that Lucas had been out of the loop, making huge strides in security technology. Quinn had created an information security program that was allegedly unhackable, and he'd sold it to the North Sea Confederation and retired on the profits. Lucas was hoping that someday the UEO and the NSC might end up at odds with one another so that he could justify hacking into the system and proving that its security wasn't as ironclad as everyone thought it was. He'd never come up against a system he couldn't hack, given enough time and the right equipment, and he didn't think that the world had changed that much in ten years.

Regardless, Quinn's talk had been solid, and it had actually given him some ideas on integrating _seaQuest_'s old systems with the UEO's new ones without having to go back and change all of the security tags on the lines of code that made up the programming for the old operating system. It was strange to think that if he took the job with Section Six, it would be someone else making those upgrades to the boat. They had a Computer Systems department aboard, of course, but none of those guys had ever done anything but routine maintenance and troubleshooting. Lucas had been in charge of the computers since he'd come aboard the first _seaQuest _at sixteen, and no major system upgrade had ever been performed by anyone but him.

"I wish I could have seen him talk," Hannah said with some regret. "Unfortunately, we had some technical issues at HQ this week, so I couldn't make it over here."

"Don't get her started," said a new voice from behind them, and Lucas and Hannah both turned to find a good-looking man approaching the table. "If I have to hear one more tale of woe about the failure of the wireless relays in Wyatt's office, my head will explode."

Lena, who'd surfaced from her conversation with Wyatt when the newcomer approached, smiled at him and then turned to Lucas. "Lucas, this is Ricardo Vazquez."

"Just call me Rico," Lena's partner told Lucas, giving him a firm handshake as he took a seat across the table from him. "It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you."

"Mostly good things, I hope," Lucas replied, and Rico grinned.

"Oh, Tibbs goes on and on about how you're so smart and funny and handsome - ow!"

Lena, who'd kicked him under the table, smiled serenely. "If you want to be able to walk tomorrow, you'll stop talking now."

"Damn, Tibbs," Rico grumbled, reaching down to rub his shin. "I'm just yanking your chain. It's all been positive, Lucas, including what I've heard from Hannah."

Lucas was surprised by that; he'd only spoken to Hannah a few times, and none of their conversations had been particularly personal. Hannah could vouch for his knowledge of computer programing, but other than that he wasn't sure what she would have said about him.

"I read your UEO personnel file," Hannah informed him, seeing his expression. "It's good stuff. Lots of commendations for your work aboard _seaQuest_, even as a civilian."

"You hacked my file?" he asked weakly, not sure whether he was justified in protesting the action when it was another branch of the UEO doing the hacking.

"She had permission," Wyatt assured him from further down the table. "I requested access from our Naval liaison on the basis that we were considering offering you a position with us."

"Which we did, in case Tibbs didn't tell you," Rico added. "Personnel is all excited about us recruiting them a new tech genius. It's an HQ job, so you won't get to have anyone shooting at you, but at least you'll get to see our girl more often. Which is great, because she misses you _so _much -"

"Only you would see getting shot at as a job perk," Hannah observed dryly as Rico and Lena exchanged kicks under the table again.

"Thibodeaux. Vazquez."

Wyatt's tone was mild, but Lena and Rico both straightened, looking sheepish at the reprimand.

"We do endeavor not to get shot at," Wyatt added, directing the comment to Lucas. "Unfortunately, we haven't had much luck with it lately."

"Is someone shooting at us?" asked one of the two men who'd approached the table while Wyatt was talking.

"Again?" asked the other newcomer, and the two of them claimed the empty seats on either side of Rico as Lena turned to Lucas again.

"Lucas, meet Agent John Smith and Agent John Smith."

"No relation," they chorused, and Lucas choked back a laugh.

"Luckily, they have different middle names. We call them JC and JD to tell them apart," Lena continued, pointing out which man was which to Lucas. It wasn't going to be easy to keep them straight; both men were tall, with similar haircuts, and based on their superficial resemblance they could easily have been brothers.

"We were just discussing the benefits of having a job in headquarters instead of being out in the field," Wyatt told them, and both men nodded.

"So have they talked you into taking the job yet?" asked JC, and Lucas gave him a wan smile to mask his discomfort. The truth was that he wanted to take the job, but every time he thought about leaving his friends and the _seaQuest_ behind, he felt sick to his stomach.

"We aren't talking him into anything," Lena said firmly. "We're going to have a nice team dinner and you're all going to be polite to my boyfriend, and no one is going to badger him about uprooting his entire life to come and make things easier for us."

Surprisingly enough, that seemed to work, and the rest of the evening passed without anyone bringing up the job offer again. Lucas actually found himself enjoying the opportunity to get to know Lena's teammates. They were an interesting bunch of people and he could see why she liked working with them. JC and JD tended to finish each other's sentences, which was amusing to watch but which only contributed to his difficulty in remembering who was who. He did manage to get Wyatt and Rico to tell him a few stories about Lena while she was distracted by a side conversation with Hannah, and it gave him a new perspective on who his girlfriend was when she was working. He'd seen her in action once, so he knew that she was a good shot and had a level head under fire, but he hadn't known that Wyatt used her as a liaison to the local police departments they worked with because she was the member of the team least likely to antagonize them, or that she had a special soft spot for cases where kids were at risk.

After spending an evening with her teammates, he knew that he would be able to fit in at Section Six, and from the way they talked about their work, he could tell that Lena's entire team was happy there. He was pretty sure that he could be happy there too, and it would be wonderful if he could actually _be _with Lena on a daily basis instead of just talking to her over a vidlink. The more he thought about leaving _seaQuest, _though, the worse he felt. He'd had problems with Hudson, and he'd hated having to adjust to all of the changes aboard the boat since Bridger had left, but _seaQuest _was his home. As much as he wanted to take the job with Section Six, he didn't know if he could leave behind everything he knew in order to do it.

* * *

><p>Lena woke up in the middle of the night, rolling over and finding the space next to her empty. A touch revealed that the sheets were cold; Lucas had been gone for a while.<p>

She hesitated for a long moment, weighing how comfortable she was against the fact that her lover was probably brooding and miserable in the other room, and eventually she sighed and pushed back the covers. There was no point in letting him dwell on whatever unpleasant thing he was doubtless thinking about when they could be in bed together instead.

As she'd guessed, Lucas was sitting on the couch in the front room, clad only in a pair of sweatpants. The light on the end table beside him was on, casting a dim glow through the room. He was clearly deep in thought.

_That's enough of that_, she decided, and announced her presence by perching sideways in his lap.

"Hey," she murmured, and he gave her a smile, jolted out of his thoughts.

"Hey, beautiful," he replied, one arm going around her waist as he reached up with his other hand to brush her hair away from her face. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I got cold," she informed him, snuggling into his embrace. "And you promised we were going to spend the entire night in bed together, but here you are on the couch. What're you doing up at this hour?"

"Thinking."

"About Section Six?" Her smile widened at his startled look. "C'mon, _cher_, of course it's on your mind. It's a terrific job offer, and you'd be surrounded by people who can appreciate how talented you are."

"And I'd have you nearby. I worry that while I'm on _seaQuest_, some other guy is going to steal you away from me."

"Yeah, well, I worry that some woman aboard that boat is going to steal _you_ away from _me_."

Lucas was visibly surprised by her words. "You don't really worry about that, do you?"

"You have no idea what a jealous shrew I am. If some woman down there does make a move on you, don't ever introduce me to her. I'm likely to claw her eyes out."

His expression turned speculative. "Like a catfight?" he asked, only half-teasing. "Because Henderson propositioned me once, and I wouldn't mind seeing the two of you fight over me."

"It wouldn't be a fight, it'd be a massacre," she informed him archly. "Was this a recent proposition?"

"What does it matter?"

She leaned forward, kissing him fiercely. "What's mine stays mine," she declared finally, pulling back just far enough to meet his gaze, and he swallowed hard.

"It was a long time ago," he promised.

"How long?"

"2022."

Lena gave a throaty laugh. "Were you even _legal_?"

"By a couple of weeks," he admitted, and she laughed again.

"That boat must be a hotbed of sexual misconduct."

"Nah. Hudson would never tolerate it." He paused, then added, "As much as I dislike the guy, I have to give him credit for making sure the rules are enforced. Until I became an officer and kind of accidentally ended up in charge of a division, I didn't realize how important that is. No one in Computer Systems would dream of breaking the fraternization regs, or any other regs,because they know that Hudson would crucify them. It makes my job as their supervisor easier."

"Are you still as unhappy there as you were? We've talked about your job offer from Section Six, but I never actually asked you that."

"I…no," he said slowly, sounding surprised by his own response. "I'm not. I mean, I'm still not _happy_, and I'm never going to like Hudson, but I'm…adjusting."

Lena sighed, pressing her forehead against his shoulder. "Then you should probably stay there."

"Lena, I -"

Her fingers against his lips stopped his protest. "Don't change your whole life just for me, _cher_," she advised him. "If you were miserable and you wanted the change, that would be one thing, but don't leave behind a life that you enjoy just to be with a woman." She smiled gently. "Even if she's as incredible as I am."

"I'd be happier here with you," he said, but the words were tinged with regret. "You know I would. And the job at Section Six is really great, but…" He sighed. "No one knows _seaQuest_ like I do, except maybe Bridger, and he's long gone. If anything happened and I wasn't there, if anyone aboard got hurt because I wasn't around to fix something -"

"Shh." Lena kissed him lightly. "You're a good man, you know that?"

"You keep telling me," he acknowledged, pulling her in for a longer kiss. "I'm sorry I'm not staying here."

She gave him a speculative look. "I might forgive you if you said it in French," she decided finally, and he smiled.

"_Je suis desole que je ne reste pas ici, cherie_."

"Hmm, that's better." She slid off of his lap, extending her hand to him. "Come back to bed, Lucas."

"_Je peux dormir sur le divan si vous etes en colere avec moi_," he offered, and she laughed.

"_Ne pas etre ridicule_," she informed him archly. "If I only have you for a few more nights, _cher_, you aren't spending any of them on the couch. And I'm the one who's going to have to explain to Personnel how I let their shiny new genius slip through my fingers, so you might as well start making it up to me now."

* * *

><p><em>Three days later<em>

It was nearly midnight, but Oliver Hudson was still awake, trying to make sense of a handful of intelligence reports that had been forwarded to him from Section Seven. He was beginning to suspect that they made the reports as difficult to interpret as possible for the sheer joy of torturing the readers.

"Sir?" O'Neil's voice from his com unit interrupted his musings. "There's a call for you from Section Six."

At least it wasn't the Section he was currently irritated with, and he could use the break. "Put it through, Lieutenant."

The screen in his quarters flared to life, and Hudson was surprised to see Jack Williamson on the other end. They'd grown up in the same town as childhood rivals, but their rivalry had turned into friendship after they'd both joined the Navy. They'd never actually been posted in the same place at the same time, and when Jack had left the service after a few years to join Section Six, they'd drifted apart. The last time they'd spoken had been over a year ago, shortly after Jack had been promoted to the head of recruitment for Section Six.

"Jack," Hudson greeted his old friend. "It's been a while."

"Too long, Oliver," Williamson agreed. "I heard you finally got your dream command, once she reappeared out of the ether."

It had never been a secret that Hudson wanted the _seaQuest_, and Williamson had ribbed him about it more than once while the boat had been missing. Hudson had been one of the few who persisted in believing that the boat was still intact despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

"I did," Hudson confirmed. "But I'm guessing you didn't call just to congratulate me."

"Actually, I'm calling to congratulate you on something else entirely," Williamson replied. "Despite our best efforts, Section Six failed to seduce Ensign Wolenczak away from your boat."

"What?"

Hudson was caught flat aback. Section Six had tried to recruit Wolenczak? He knew the ensign had been working for them doing technical support, but that wasn't an unusual occurrence, and it certainly didn't mean that they'd singled him out for recruitment.

"It's been in the works for a while," Williamson replied, taking a little pleasure from his old friend's visible surprise. "Come on, Oliver. Wolenczak is one of the brightest minds of our time. He could do great things for us."

"He already has a job," Hudson said firmly. "I don't want you poaching my people, Jack."

"Oh, it's not just me, Oliver." Williamson leaned back in his chair. "We got in the first bid, but rest assured that we're not the only organization looking at him. If you aren't careful, you'll lose him to a private sector security company as soon as his current enlistment is up."

"Is that so?" Hudson couldn't resist a smug smile. "He turned you down, didn't he?"

"I understand it was a near miss," Williamson replied, not taking the bait. "And we offered him a good position, but it's nothing compared to what someone like Simon Thibodeaux could offer him. He could make in a week what the Navy pays him in a year, and he wouldn't have to live in a tin can underwater to do it. And Simon is already aware of him, just so you know."

Hudson resisted the urge to sigh. Simon Thibodeaux was a wildcard, a former NSA-turned-Section Six agent who'd left the government to start his own private security company. He was very good at what he did, and his company had made millions protecting corporations and wealthy private citizens. Rumor had it that Section Six had even consulted him a few times on difficult cases.

"Why are you telling me this?" Hudson asked, suspicious of Williamson's motives. "Why not just keep trying to wear him down and then snatch him out from under my nose?"

"Oh, I intend to," Williamson replied, matter of fact. "But in order to steal him from you, I need him to stay with you until he says yes to me. It'll be a hell of a lot harder for me to get my hands on him once Simon has him under his thrall."

"So what is it that you want from me?"

"I know you, Oliver. When you get your claws into a young officer who you think has potential, you beat him down so that you can build him back up in your own image."

Hudson started to protest that, but his friend held up a hand to forestall his arguments.

"It's not a bad technique, and I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job, but if you try that routine with Wolenczak, you might manage to alienate him enough that he ends up selling his soul to Simon to get away from you. Just try being nice to the kid, would you? Keep him happy so that I get the chance to convince him that I can make him even happier."

"Keep your recruitment schemes off of my boat," Hudson retorted. "And the next time you talk to Simon Thibodeaux, tell him he can go to hell."

He disconnected the call, feeling a headache start to blossom behind his eyes. He was a Navy captain. He wasn't supposed to be in the position of needing to coddle his officers to keep them in the service. They were supposed to _want _to be there.

Wolenczak hadn't left, though, and that was something. Section Six wasn't allowed to poach freely from the Navy's complement of sailors, but every once in a while they made a request to transfer someone with a special skill set that they needed, and in the interest of keeping the peace between the military and the federal law enforcement behemoth, the Navy typically acquiesced - provided, of course, that the sailor in question _wanted _to leave the Navy. If Wolenczak had said yes to Williamson's offer, he would already be gone.

On the surface, Wolenczak was just the type of junior officer that Hudson would have been happy to dump off on Section Six; he was too emotional, too undisciplined, and quite frankly too _smart _for Hudson to be comfortable dealing with him. He liked smart officers and appreciated a sharp intellect in his people, but Wolenczak's super-genius IQ was an entirely different kettle of fish. Unfortunately, the _seaQuest _needed Wolenczak. Hudson had initially been under the impression that, although Wolenczak was clearly the most talented computer programmer aboard the boat, things would continue to function normally without him. It had been Ford who'd inadvertently made him realize that the ensign was more important than he'd thought.

Several weeks into the tour, Ford had voiced his relief that Lucas had agreed to remain aboard the boat even though it had required joining the Navy, and had added that Lucas had written most of the boat's original programming himself. A little bit of additional research told Hudson that Wolenczak wasn't just a systems analyst, he was the original systems _designer_. He'd completely overhauled the design that Nathan Bridger and a team of UEO software engineers had used for the first _seaQuest_'s systems when he'd helped Bridger to build this boat, and having him aboard was the equivalent of Hudson having an entire UEO R&D team at his fingertips to change or modify anything about the boat's operating systems that needed improvement. He could do in three hours what should have taken six specialists and a week in drydock with the boat's systems completely offline.

No, they needed him specifically, which meant that Hudson was going to have to make an effort to convince him to remain aboard, no matter how much it galled him to have to do it.


End file.
